The legendary Hollywood actress, Ava Gardner was at the height of her career in the 1950’s, and her autobiography, ghost written by Peter Evans, was published in 2013, after Gardner and Evans were both dead. Which begs the question of just how much interest there would be in a stage adaptation of the book. Written by, and starring, Elizabeth McGovern of Downton Abbey fame, Ava: The Secret Conversations is now playing at London’s Riverside Studios and attempts to revive interest in the long-gone starlet.
That’s no easy task. The book was written based on conversations Evans had with Gardner in the final years of her life, as she lived with the debilitating consequences of a stroke. But their relationship turned sour (the play doesn’t fully explain the circumstances) and the resulting publication was nothing more than a collection of salacious tabloid gossip.
With that as the source material, it’s unsurprising that McGovern’s script, or its direction by Gaby Dellal, does little to show us any greater depth to Ava Gardner. The Secret Conversation instead lurches from one romantic relationship to another, from studio rivalries to press attention, and none of it is particularly interesting to modern audiences. Each chapter of her life is ticked off in such a cold and detached fashion, it becomes impossible to relate to the story.
For some reason Peter’s editor is obsessed with the size of Frank Sinatra’s genitals, and the play might be more interesting if that question were answered. McGovern’s steady performance, does little to convince us we’re in the presence of Gardner, and the romantic element hinted at between Ava and her ghost-writer lacks the chemistry to be believable.
Anatol Yusef plays Evans, as well as all of Ava’s husbands; Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra. Yusef delivers some good impressions of the trio, with his Rooney almost spot on, but the way the script is written, some of the transitions seem oddly placed, while others make no sense at all.
Where the script is lacking, the set design at least gives us something interesting to look at; 59 Productions video projections merge the theatrical with cinematography, while the sliding black screens create a sense of different camera shots, as if we, the audience, were the director framing each shot to be as tantalising as possible.
There’s a scene towards the end, where Gardner begins to open up about her relationship with Howard Hughes, it’s the first time in Ava: The Secret Conversations, that we start to see a different side to Ava Gardner, the mask slips and there’s a vulnerability ripe to be explored. But it never is, all too quickly we move on to something else, and that rather sums up this play; it teases us with promises that it never quite delivers.
As Ava Gardner recounts her life to Peter Evans, she frequently asks him, in this unmistakable North Carolina dustbowl accent, ‘is this boring?’. Ava: The Secret Conversations isn’t exactly boring, but it is too timid, shying away from what could have been a brilliant journey through the life of a Hollywood icon.
Ava: The Secret Conversations is at Riverside Studios until 16th April 2022.
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